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A BURNING DESIRE
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROGER BONNICI
A nyone who doubts Roger Bonnici’s passion for his
craft has clearly never met the man. Certainly Paul Hills, the director of his fea- ture debut Boston Kickout as well as a friend and fre-
quent collaborator in the seven years since, was quickly acquainted with his DP-to-be’s enthusiasm very early on.
“He’s said that I threatened to burn his house down unless he let me light the film,” Bonnici chuckles. “He was so moved – or perhaps terrified! – by that comment, that he could tell I was as passionate about the script as he was. But I thought it was a great script and I really wanted to make it.”
Shooting Boston Kickout in 1996, a guerrilla style film shot on the mean streets of Stevenage, was the making of both Hills and Bonnici. But as spe- cific, and indeed personal, as the story was for writer–director Hills the virtue of that tale of disaffected youth was the universal themes that it artic- ulately explored.
“I read the script and really empathised with the characters,” Bonnici agrees. “To me that was so much like the people I knew growing up, but Paul told me much later that it was about the people he knew when he was at school. I thought it was a story we could all identify with.
“Shooting it, though, was a real rollercoaster ride. At the time Paul was being interviewed in the local press and on the local television net- work, and Stevenage councillors were trying to prevent him shooting where he wanted, or restrict parking our technical vehicles where we wanted.
“I don’t think the story shows Stevenage in a bad light at all, it just highlights the difficulties of teenage life in a New Town.”
The irony of this story is that as a teenager himself, Bonnici was not pur- suing a life of crime so much as a career in the theatre. Initially the opportunity arose to light productions at his local, the Royal Hippodrome in Eastbourne before chancing his luck and getting a job at the Drury Lane Theatre in London. After several years there, Bonnici had gained a very use- ful grounding in lighting techniques
that were beginning to stretch into the realm of film.
“When they staged TV productions at Drury Lane they would bring in all these different lights, studio lights that were quite different from the theatre ones we’d been using. And after I left Drury Lane, I joined the National Coal
Board Film Unit and started using red- heads, blondes and HMI’s, lights that were rarely used in the theatre.
“But over the years it’s changed. Theatre lights are so infinitely adjustable that film people have start- ed using luminaires like Leko lights, and profile spots with internal cutters. They’re always used on the stage and now we can see them used more and more in commercials and films.”
From the National Coal Board Film Unit, an institution that seems to con- sign 43-year-old Bonnici to an altogeth- er earlier vintage of cinematography,
he resolved to work his way through the ranks on UK film productions wherever the opportunity arose.
“I thought it was important to do that,” he explains, “because although most gaffers can light scenes, I felt that I must fully understand the cam- era equipment, lenses, grip equipment
and all their limitations. Lighting a scene is only part of the jigsaw. How you achieve the shots logistically and whether they cut together are other parts and so is your rapport with actors. Some technicians have a natu- ral ability with actors and directors, and some don’t.”
So from theatre lighting man, to gaffer and swiftly to clapper loader and beyond, the progression seems simple and straightforward. Since he has been a DP he has worked on fea- tures as diverse as Boston Kickout, La Passione and Sunset Heights. Bonnici
Photos main: Roger Bonnici; above l-r scenes from: Paul Hills’ feature debut Boston Kickout; The Poet; Death Machine (photos courtesy Moviestore Collection)
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